Speaker talks research on soil nutrient management at WIU farm field day

Friday

Aug 9, 2013 at 6:30 AM

By Lainie Steelmanlsteelman@McDonoughVoice.com

Bill Becker — a.k.a, "The Crop Doctor" — has a nemesis: The nematode, a parasitic worm that is fond of attacking Illinois crops, particularly soybeans.

Becker was the keynote speaker at Western Illinois University's Allison Farm Field Day Thursday and addressed local farmers and others in agriculture about how to maintain soil nutrient balance to ward off the nematode and increase crop fertility.

Through his research, Becker has learned that nematodes are more resistant to soil that has a good balance of the 13 mineral nutrients.

"Potassium, iron, manganese and sodium are mutually synergistic in crop uptake," he said during his talk.

Becker is a crop consultant based in Springfield. He's also a WIU alumnus, earning a bachelor's degree in zoology in 1969 and master's degree in botany in 1971. He also earned a doctorate in plant pathology from the University of Illinois.

Becker said Illinois soil contains too much phosphorous because over-fertilization is a problem. He also encourages the welcoming of the earthworms because they aerate the soil.

Joel Gruver, director of WIU's Organic Research Program, said he's looking forward to collaborating with Becker on Allison Farm's organic research crops. WIU's Allison Farm is an 80-acre site located near Roseville.

"I'll be interested in helping him evaluate some of the soil test and tissue test results and help our development of some strategies," Gruver said. "I think that he has a unique approach to data mining, basically looking through data and trying to find relationships.

"I'm not sure all of these relationships are meaningful, but I think there's so much complexity in organic farming that we need new strategies to finding out what's happening."

Becker said he's interested in learning more about the cover crops used at the Allison Farm.

Planting a cover crop is a method of using another crop to organically smother out weeds and pests.

"I want to see how we can blend the soil nutrient management with cover crops and which combinations are the best and how they mesh together," Becker said.

Another speaker at Thursday's field day was Tom Ferguson, a manure specialist with Manure, Inc., based in East Troy, Wis. His company specializes in raw, composted and pelletized fertilizer.

A pelletized chicken litter product was evaluated on Allison Farm crops, including corn and soybeans, this year.

"Everything (Becker) said that they need is found in chicken manure, in some form or fashion," he said of the keynote speaker's research.

In addition to Ferguson's and Becker's speeches, Allison Farm Field Day included a panel discussion, a lunch featuring local farm products, a trade show and a walking tour of the farm plots.

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